Rapid guidelines – timely and important guidance needed for setting standards and best practices

Excerpt

In an increasingly unstable world faced with multiple health threats and emergencies, practitioners and decision-makers are increasingly in need of evidence-based rapid guidelines (RGs) in order to guide the implementation of public health measures to mitigate the negative effects of such threats. The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2015 and a potential Ebola outbreak currently occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo, together with the current, looming threat of avian influenza H3N2 and H7N9 in Asia, are just some examples of the explosive and rapidly developing infectious disease outbreaks which could benefit from the availability of such guidelines, for example, in the areas of detection, containment, treatment, public health measures and, importantly, risk communication. The need is especially great in fragile states in the developing world, which have limited health facilities, infrastructure, health workers and resources, as illustrated by the recent outbreak of cholera in Yemen killing nearly 2000 people. In countries with weakened health systems, limited resources and competing priorities, proper and evidence-based guidance during health emergencies becomes even more important for optimal decision-making. In addition, public health emergencies caused by natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes, tsunamis), extreme weather events (e.g. earthquakes, floods, landslides, heatwaves) and the deliberate or accidental release of biological and chemical agents (e.g. the recent use of VX nerve gas in an assassination in Malaysia), pose an exceptional but urgent need for the timely availability of RGs to prevent a rapid deterioration of any public health emergency. …